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I’m trying to remember why I thought it was a good idea to invite her along with me today.
The conclusion I keep drawing is that I’m an idiot.
I did it to be seen with her, and we were seen as we walked in together. Someone somewhere snapped a photo of us, and it’ll be posted online soon. It’ll erase the rumors about who the woman last night was, and I won’t ever need to address it.
I shouldn’t have to.
It’s my fucking life, and just because I play a sport people tune into every Sunday, they think they deserve the inside track to what I do in my spare time.
They don’t.
Nobody does.
I pay for the bunny and the balloon, and we head toward the elevator. We’re buzzed into a waiting room, and my brother comes down to collect us.
“Congratulations, bro,” I say to Lincoln when he walks in the room.
He looks…exhausted. Like he hasn’t slept in a week. And maybe he hasn’t, though I don’t comment on that. I grab him in a hug and slap him on the back.
“You remember Ava Maxwell, don’t you?” I nod toward the woman beside me.
“Beckett Maxwell’s sister, right?” Lincoln says, eyeing her.
She nods and steps in to give him a hug. “That’s right. Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” he says with a smile. “I’m so glad you’re both here. I can’t wait for you to meet them, but Jolene and the baby are both sleeping. Do you mind waiting here until they wake up and she has a chance to try feeding her again?”
“Not at all,” I say, sliding onto a chair. Ava takes the seat beside me, and Lincoln sits across from us. “So…how is she?”
His smile widens. “Jolene? Great. And the baby? Amazing. Six pounds, seven ounces of literal perfection.”
“What name did you decide on?” I ask.
“I’ll let Jo tell you that.” He yawns.
“Go get some rest,” I suggest. “We’ll be fine here.”
“Seriously, this kid wakes up every hour, so you can come meet her soon.” Lincoln pushes to a stand, and the door to the waiting room opens.
“Two of my boys in the same room? How’d a mom get so lucky?” Mom says as she rushes to hug Lincoln first, and she says something into his ear. She squeezes me next, and she’s beaming when her eyes land on the woman beside me. “And Gray brought a date?”
“You remember Ava Maxwell, don’t you, Mom?” I ask.
“Oh, of course! How’s your mom doing, sweetheart?” she asks as she pulls Ava into a warm hug.
“She’s okay,” Ava says, and for the first time, I wonder how she’s really doing. It’s not something Beckett and I talk about, and I don’t think Ava is very close with her. In fact, she rarely mentions her family at all.
I wonder about how long it’s been since the last time Ava and Beckett spoke. Or Ava and her brother Alexander, or Ava and her brother Oliver.
I touch base with all my brothers fairly frequently. My mom texts me once a day at a minimum. I can’t imagine not feeling that connection with them, and I can’t imagine how the beautiful woman standing beside me hugging my mother feels about not having a mother figure in her own life. I wonder if she chose Vegas on purpose to escape her family and create her own life somewhere far away from them.
It pulses more feelings in me about how I don’t know her as well as I want to.
And as if the thought comes out of absolutely nowhere, I wonder if I could give her the type of family she deserves.
“When can I meet my first grandbaby?” Mom asks Linc.
“Let me go see if Jo and the baby are awake,” Lincoln says, and he heads down the hallway, leaving the three of us in the empty waiting room.
